Mars Audiac Quintet (LP)

Stereolab

Amoeba Review

Brad 02/08/2013

I still remember the first time I heard Stereolab. It was the year before this in 1993. Transient Random-Noise Bursts With Announcements was released in 1993. One of my friends had it on cassette and I loved the name of the band. I loved the name of the album and the artwork. I didn't know anything about them. But I sort of already somehow knew that they would become one of my favorite bands. I never gave my friend's cassette back and I know I purchased Mars Audiac Quintet on CD as soon as it came out in 1994. I really did love everything about this band. I was hooked on this band for life after this album came out. They were seriously the coolest band that I liked and sounded like nothing that I had heard before. This was years before I had ever heard of bands like Neu! or Faust. They fit into my love of shoegaze and electronics. They were sort of a mix of lounge music and shoegaze. Emperor Tomato Ketchup came out two years later in 1996 and was probably their most popular album. Dots & Loops was released in 1997 and was probably the last album of theirs that I was obsessed with. But I will remain a fan of this band for life.

Double vinyl LP pressing. Reissue of album from 1994.

An absolute classic from Stereolab gets reissued on LP, featuring some of their best towers of kitschy, krautrocky, building-block sound, including “Three-Dee Melodie,” “Wow and Flutter,” and “Ping Pong.”